Many business organizations comprise a number of locations. These locations may be stores, depots, warehouses, offices, or a combination thereof, for example. The locations may be spread throughout a state, a country or the world, for example. The locations are often connected to a computer network such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN). The networks may comprise wired and wireless components.
Computer devices are common place in many businesses. By way of example, and not limitation, computer devices may comprise printers, cameras, laptop computers, desktop computers, scanners. It many cases it is necessary for these devices to work on a computer network such as a LAN or WAN. If a business has a number of locations then it may be necessary for all computer devices within that business to work on the same network.
When computer devices are purchased they are often not configured to work on a particular network. In order for them to work on a particular network they often must be manually configured. This configuration can be complicated and it is often necessary for it to be carried out by skilled personnel. If there is no skilled person at the particular location where the device is intended to work then it is necessary for someone to travel from another location in order to configure the device. This is obviously undesirable.
Further, secure wireless networks are becoming widely used in order to allow network devices to be used wirelessly. It is often more difficult to configure a device to work on a secure wireless network as opposed to a wired network. One example of a wireless device that can be used on a secure wireless network is a printer. It is desirable to be able to configure a wireless device to work on a secure wireless network with little specialized knowledge. Further, it is desirable that as few people as possible have access to the details of the secure wireless network.
In some circumstances it is desirable to configure a device differently, depending on where it is to be used. For example, Store A might require Configuration A, whereas Store B might require Configuration B. This means that manually configuring a device can be time consuming and labor intensive.